


Kaspbrak vs Tozier

by Vic_writes01



Category: IT (Movies - Muschietti), IT - Stephen King
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Pennywise (IT), F/M, Homophobia, Inspired by Romeo and Juliet, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-18
Updated: 2019-12-18
Packaged: 2021-03-08 19:29:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,225
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21842389
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vic_writes01/pseuds/Vic_writes01
Summary: Sonia Kaspbrak and both, Wentworth and Maggie Tozier, never got along. It went as far back as 3 (maybe even 4) generations of Toziers and Kaspbraks before the three had a son each. This ultimately led to Edward ‘Eddie’ Kaspbrak and Richard ‘Richie’ Tozier growing up hating each other.
Relationships: Ben Hanscom & Beverly Marsh, Ben Hanscom/Beverly Marsh, Eddie Kaspbrak & Richie Tozier, Eddie Kaspbrak/Richie Tozier
Kudos: 34





	Kaspbrak vs Tozier

Sonia Kaspbrak and both, Wentworth and Maggie Tozier, never got along. It went as far back as 3 (maybe even 4) generations of Toziers and Kaspbraks before the three had a son each. Edward ‘Eddie’ Kaspbrak and Richard ‘Richie’ Tozier grew up hating each other. 

Eddie and Richie never fully understood the story, it made little sense as to how both families hated each other. There was a blurred line between the two, something to do with different beliefs. During a time when being gay was seen as unacceptable (and an illness), the Tozier’s were accepting as were a few families in the community (like the Marsh’s and the Uris’). But Eddie and Richie never understood why the disparity was only between the Toziers and Kaspbraks, not the others that accepted the constant changing community? It was blurred, neither had the full story, so the two boys made up their own stories. 

Eddie, being raised in a highly religious household, thought that maybe 4th generation Tozier was friends with 4th generation Kaspbrak and then said something that didn’t agree with the way of the church. i.e came out gay or had pre-marital intercourse etc. The idea of loving someone of the opposite gender was drilled into every Kaspbrak family, that it was evil. Since Frank Kaspbrak was an only child, the only hope was for Eddie to continue the legacy. But Eddie was seeing different and all the lies his mother had told completely changed his view on life. 

Richie, on the other hand, thought that maybe the two families were friends until a Tozier fell in love with a Kaspbrak. The Kaspbraks, being part of the majority of the unaccepting community, stopped being friends with the Toziers due to them being part of the ‘infected’ and scared that they’d be ‘infected’ also. The Toziers general thought was that everything they did and said were immoral, as the Kaspbrak’s are highly religious.

****

Now in college, Eddie was certain that he was rid of Richie but that thought’s gone when the tall, curly-haired, punk-styled boy sits beside him in a psychology lecture. “Fuck!” They both mutter harshly as they realised. Richie and Eddie start to gather up their belongings only to realise that there are no more empty seats in the entire hall. Both fall into their respective seats in a huff and lean away from one another to take their notes.

He takes a quick glimpse at the boy sitting beside him, eyeballing him up and down. It’s obvious that Richie’s still hot, he killed the whole skater/punk vibe. It was the slightly baggy black ripped jeans and the oldish, slightly baggy, hole-ridden Nirvana t-shirt, the whole vibe of a skater dude. His dark, almost black, hair was untamed, curly, it falls nicely over his hipster black glasses.

“Quit checking me out Kaspbrak,” Richie whispers.

“I wasn’t,” Eddie mutters and he focusses back to the lecture but can’t help but continue to steal a glance at the boy beside him. Unbeknownst to Eddie, Richie is doing the exact same thing. Richie focusses on the details to give him an implication as to who Eddie is. A germaphobe.

Well, the fanny pack kinda gives it away, the deep denim blue skinny jeans are matched to a light pink polo shirt. His hair’s tamed, a gentle wave is starting to poke through, he clearly straightens his hair, Richie thinks. All Richie can now think about is pinching Eddie’s cheeks and calling him ‘cute’. 

“Stop staring Tozier.” Richie looks away from Eddie quickly but could hear the obvious smirk in Eddie’s voice. Both boys suddenly forget why their families hate each other. Eddie knows that his mum was wrong, it isn’t a disease, and with one final glance at Richie, before the end of the lecture, he finally accepts (after 2 years of debating), that he is gay. 

****

Eddie takes the hike up to his dorm room, “Sorry man but you’ve been bumped up a floor, your roommate’s really sick of something.” Some dude says to Eddie, handing him his new room key and number. 

Great! Just what he needs. Thankfully he had taken his computer (and charger) plus his 3 lecture books. “How long before I can go back?” Eddie asks.

“Unfortunately not, you’ve been moved permanently for the year.” Eddie huffs and hauls himself up another flight of stairs. That means that the college had touched his personal items and moved them to his new room. Well, that’s a breach of privacy.

“43?” Eddie whispers to himself, he walks slowly down the hall and stops just as he sees the boy walking into the room. “I’m rooming with you?!” 

“Edward!? You’re the ass that’s bunking with me for the rest of the semester?” Richie yells back. 

There has to be some sort of mistake. He feels like Juliet Capulet, or maybe Romeo Montague, he doesn’t know. One of them at least. Eddie tries to find a nicer example considering how it ends in Shakespeare’s play but it’s the only acceptable parallel, only he hopes it won’t end in tragedy.

Eddie walks in through the door in a huff, throwing his backpack at the foot of his new bed and falls back onto the bedding, his head narrowly missing the top of the bed. “Okay, our families have an issue but we haven’t spoken or done anything mean to one another,” Richie reasons. “Why don’t we get to know each other?”

“Sure.” 

Eddie doesn’t see the harm and he knows that Richie is right. Why was there ever an issue? The line was blurred as to how it truly went down as every generation messed up what actually happened. It finally came down to Richie and Eddie, and both of them had no idea why they were supposed to hate each other. If it had something to do with the homophobia way back then, then it shouldn’t be a problem now. 

****

A few months later, the pair have become great friends, hidden from their parents. Now being a day before the start of Spring break, both of them have finished exams and are sitting on their respective beds reading. “I’m going to my friend’s beach house, well her dad’s. He died a couple of years ago and she inherited the house a few months ago after turning 18.” Richie says but then doesn’t follow through. The actual invitation getting lost on his tongue.

“Are you inviting me or just saying for a conversational purpose?” Eddie asks.

“Huh? Oh right, would you like to come? I was given an extra ticket.” 

The truth was Richie told Bev (and Stan) about his little crush on Eddie (that he had developed a little over 2 months ago). So when she booked the flight (which Richie had paid for), she paid for an extra ticket so that Eddie could also go. 

When Richie received the e-mail 2 days ago, Bev had written, “I booked an extra ticket for that cutie that you told me about.”

“Ah, yeah sure. Better than being cooped up in here or in Derry.” Eddie replies.

With Spring break just around the corner, Eddie is keen to just get out of the dorm room and out with friends or even back at Derry. But he doesn’t want to travel back to his overbearing mother. If she ever finds out … Eddie doesn’t want to fathom on the thought, so he trails off.

“We leave tomorrow,” Richie says nonchalantly 

“Way to throw that at me now, dickhead!” Eddie cries but doesn’t get up.

Richie pulls out a suitcase from under his bed, he packs 3 of his hideous Hawaiian shirts and a couple of pairs of board shorts. Eddie watches intently, the suitcase is a little big for that little amount of clothes. Even with a swim towel, jeans, leather jacket and a hoodie, it was still too big. Richie waltzes over to Eddie’s side of the room. 

Eddie’s frozen as he watches Richie grab a shit ton of his clothing, normally he would be pissed for the invasion of privacy but Richie still did whatever he liked. Richie takes into account of Eddie’s personality and fears, finding shorts and board shorts, t-shirts (& Polo tops), pyjamas and underwear. He whips out a jacket, hoodie and jeans. In a plastic bag, Richie grabs some flipflops and two pairs for Eddie (germs ya know). 

*

As the pair seat themselves, in the seats that Bev had booked, Eddie starts to question the chairs. Every known fact about plane accidents and worst seats come into his mind. He reaches into his pocket for his inhaler, a terrible habit and mechanism that seems to be the only thing to stop his panic attacks. Richie doesn’t question it, the only thing that seems reasonable, is to get him distracted, especially for take-off. Richie passes him a novel from his own carry-on and a stick of gum. Eddie tightens his seat belt and willingly takes the gum and the book from Richie, he glances at the punk styled man beside him and smiles briefly. He feels pressure grip his knee and slowly moves upwards towards the middle of his thigh. It’s a subtle notion that brings Eddie comfort.

“Richie, can I tell you something?” Eddie asks, just as the plane starts to move towards the runway. It’s weird wanting to tell the guy you’re gay when you’re 1) supposed to hate them, 2) have a crush on them and 3) only just became really good friends with.

“Sure Eds.” Now he’s dreading it and wants to back down. He tries to think of anything else to say to Richie.

“Okay, first off, don’t call me that. Second of all, I think I’m gay.” Richie doesn’t say anything, he blinks a couple of times and then smiles. 

“So am I.” Eddie reciprocates the smile. “What do you think happened between our families?” It ties in, so Eddie wasn’t at all surprised by the question. It had, of course, been burning into his mind ever since he found out that Richie was actually a really nice guy. Richie decides to impulsively pinch Eddie’s cheeks, Eddie wacks his hand away and rubs his cheek and tries to cover the crimson colour that his face is turning.

Once Eddie gets a hold of himself, suppressing the butterflies and the blush that had occurred, he says, “I don’t know, whatever it was, it must’ve been bad. I was told that it was something to do with homophobia.”

“I was told something a little more broad, just a disagreement that went against church beliefs.” 

****

By the time they reached Beverly’s beach house, it’s almost 8pm, Richie pays the taxi driver and collects his suitcase from the trunk of the car. “Right, shall we?” Richie says in his terrible British accent. The house looks fairly fancy, considering it was owned by Alvin Marsh, parts were still a little old-fashioned like the outside light fixtures and the original part before the odd & modern extension out the back, other than that it was pretty modern. The squared look, the clear open floor plan, since the curtains are drawn back, you can see in from the curb. 

“Molly, how are you?” Richie greets as the redheaded girl opens the door.

“Great Richard, and don’t call me Molly.” She steps aside to let Richie and Eddie step in. “So this is the guy you’ve been blabbing to me about. Wait! Isn’t he -”

The look in Bev’s eyes … Eddie knows that she knows. Even though he had never hung out with her in high school, it was obvious that she knows who he is. 

“Edward?!” Stan spits. “This is the guy you’ve been whining about!?”

“Give him a break Stanley, Eddie was almost valedictorian, tutored, did babysitting and volunteering.” Ben pipes up. 

Ben wasn’t part of Richie’s friendship group, but Eddie did know that he had a massive crush on Bev. It was obvious, he would stare hopefully all English class, Eddie found it kinda pathetic but knew what it was like to be pining for someone he couldn’t have. His crush on Richie went away after high school but came rushing back at the start of the year when they had inadvertently sat beside each other in psychology. 

“It’s the obvious story of Romeo and Juliet!” Beverly cries cheerfully. 

Before Richie or Eddie could butt in, Ben comments, “Can I make a Degrassi reference babe?” Bev rolls her eyes and nods towards Ben, “It’s Romeo and Jules.” 

Richie looks at Eddie cautiously, trying to eyeball and sudden change in demeanour that may signal that Eddie doesn’t like him. “I’m the Capulet, Bill is my Tybalt!” Eddie screams, Richie only laughs and kisses Eddie.

“So, Eddie Spaghetti, does that make Bev and Stan my ‘Benvolio’ and ‘Mercutio’?” Richie whispers against Eddie’s lips.

“If you want them to be.” The two laugh into yet another kiss.

“Okay okay, keep it PG-rated! We don’t want any nonsense!” Beverly says jokingly.

Now that they were far away from Derry and far away from their parents and their parents’ feud. The two took it upon themselves to start a clean slate for the Toziers and Kaspbraks. Eddie ponders on the thought that if Romeo and Juliet didn’t die, they’d unite their families, just like he hopes for Richie and him.


End file.
